In case it is not clear, I have an innate need for series.
My brothers are to blame as they had me binge-watching ‘Friends’ since the age
of nine and I haven’t stopped; chances are I won’t. So it is hardly surprising
that I stumble on to series like Westworld. The new ‘Game of Thrones’ some
said! An adventurous breach of ethics with Sir Anthony Hopkins in a mysterious
role of a genius! Who would resist? Who
did? Seriously, who is not watching it? And why?!
There are actually a few reasons why.
First of all, the
statement ‘new Game of Thrones’ is very misleading; it was to me at least. Game
of Thrones has a lot of things going on, so many main characters, so many plots
which intertwine and separate for numerous developments that mean a different
thing for each and every character. Have I mentioned that George R. R. Martin
is a genius? Westworld is pretty much one thing; the robots will rebel and
revenge their mismanagement. This is not a spoiler; this is just the very
obvious prediction one makes before even watching a single episode. It is a
single ethical shock/dilemma, which is promising in terms of action, therefore
there is some anticipation, but nowhere near as much as the completely
unpredictable Game of Thrones. Therefore, let’s just conclude that the
comparison is misleading at best, irrelevant at worst.
This next one might just be me, but is anyone really rooting
for the humans? They are being absolutely awful to the robots, taking advantage
of them in every way and the makers have given them enough cognition to make
this a painful experience. So, yeah, problem solved! Robots will rebel, justice
will be restored and we will make sure to create our future theme parks more
humane. There is no real dilemma, is there? There is no taking sides; plus
there hasn’t yet been a character interesting or relatable or nice enough to
perplex things a bit. Say a man that would attempt to murder a small boy but
then nobly save his war captor from unavoidable rape (you got Game of Thrones
from that? That can’t be, I stopped comparing the two). So yeah, robots good,
people bad.
It is still an interesting ethical breach, even if at least
to a vast majority the conclusions are unanimous. My real problem is, this
particular ethical issue, Artificial Intelligence, robots having feelings,
robot rebellion, it has been dealt with. Extensively. In the 90’s. The movie
the series is based on was made in 1973! ‘I, Robot’ was twelve years ago and it
was already outdated (it was also pretty bad and cheesy). So while this is a
very interesting question and a careful insight on how we treat others when
there are no consequences, I do not feel it adds that much more to the field.
But who knows, maybe it is something waiting to happen! Maybe a shocking twist
will come our way!
So I understand, I do, it might seem like less good a choice
than what had been advertised but it is still such a good choice! It is beautifully made, there are some
gorgeous details in the robots’ behaviour and this portrayal of western scenery
as part of an otherwise futuristic society is always pleasant. And the cast is
really good! The amazing Anthony Hopkins is just so impressive in anything he
does! He could sneeze and if they’d let it in the final cut it would look like
Shakespeare with mucus!
So there you go! A misleading blog post to match for the
misleading comparison!
By the way, if you
just read the bold bits it is a very positive review J
